Birding

Best Bird of the Weekend (First of November 2009)

November 9, 2009 by Corey 8 Comments

Though health care reform has been passed in the U.S. House of Representatives we all know that the best cure for what ails you is seeing a really good bird over the weekend.  So, where did you bird and what did you see on this weekend after Election Day in the United States?  Tell us about your best bird.

My best bird of the weekend was my first Blue-winged Teal for Nassau County, New York,  on a Queens County Bird Club trip.  We may not have been in our home county but we found our way around rather well on an unseasonably warm November day and tallied well north of forty birds on our half-day trip.  The Blue-winged Teal wouldn’t come close enough for a worthwhile photo but the Green-winged Teal below did.

Mike’s best bird of the weekend, which he is spending at Hotel Mocking Bird Hill, the lucky stiff, was a Jamaican Tody, which he spotted while rafting down Jamaica’s Rio Grande.  He might think he’s in a tropical paradise but will he ever be upset when he gets back and learns that he missed the last nice weekend of 2009 in New York.  I just hope it is snowing in Rochester by the time he gets home, not that I am jealous of his trip or anything.

Charlie spent his weekend maxin’ and relaxin’ in his country estate.  I understand that he has taken to wearing a bathrobe at all times of day and smoking a pipe, or, at least, that is what I have heard from reliable sources.  Instead of birds, he is even focusing on bats and bugs and stuff.  Mike leaves for one weekend and all kinds of craziness breaks out!

What was your best bird of the weekend? Tell us about the rarest, loveliest, or most interesting bird you observed in the comments section. Plus, if you’ve blogged about your weekend experience, I invite you to include a link in your comment.

Written by Corey
Corey is a New Yorker who lived most of his life in upstate New York but has lived in Queens since 2008. He's only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list by birding whenever he wasn't working as a union representative or spending time with his family. He lives in Forest Hills with Daisy and Desmond Shearwater. His bird photographs have appeared on the Today Show, in Birding, Living Bird Magazine, Bird Watcher's Digest, and many other fine publications. He is also the author of the American Birding Association Field Guide to the Birds of New York.